Exhibit Opening Talk & Reception for In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak

News item published on: 2011-07-01 09:22:01

Exhibit opening reception for In a Nutshell: the Worlds of Maurice Sendak. Rabbi Uri Barnea will open the evening with a sample of Jewish music and will play the violin during the reception. The Rabbi holds a doctorate in Conducting and Composition from the University of Minnesota and was a professional musician before attending Rabbinical School. The exhibit opening will also feature a talk by Vicki Reikes Fox on the Jewish influence in Sendak's writings and illustrations as well as her own creative work. Ms. Fox, the founding director of the Mississippi's Museum of Southern Jewish History, is a museum consultant and author of Shalom Y'all, Images of Jewish Life in the American South.

The traveling exhibition In a Nutshell: the Worlds of Maurice Sendak explores the influence of Jewish culture and history in the work of renowned children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Sendak is best known as the illustrator of over 100 children's books, including Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen. University Libraries enhances the exhibit with key pieces drawn from the internationally-known de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. Original works from such Jewish authors and illustrators as H.A. and Margret Rey, Ezra Jack Keats, Nonny Hogrogian, Tana Hoban, and others will be on display.

The exhibit will run July 9-August 18, 2011.

In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak was organized by the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, and developed by Nextbook, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Jewish literature, culture, and ideas, and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The national tour of the exhibit has been made possible by grants from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the David Berg Foundation, and an anonymous donor, with additional support from Tablet Magazine: A New Read on Jewish Life

Contact: Ellen Ruffin, Curator, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection / 601.266.4349 / Exhibit Opening Talk & Reception for In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak.

Cook Library 105A (next to Starbucks)

Saturday, July 9, 7:00-9:00 p.m.